Interconnecting the leads of components such as integrated circuits and various discreet devices such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors to the circuit paths of printed circuit boards is accomplished in a variety of ways, soldering such leads being typical for those components which are highly reliable and have long lives. Providing sockets which allow such components to be plugged and unplugged represents an alternative and this may be done by freestanding sockets, sockets loaded into holes in the board and soldered thereto, or through headers which contain rows or arrays of sockets in number and position to receive the plural leads of components. A further alternative is to use the so called compliant pin approach where stamped and formed conductive posts or pins are made to have spring sections which can be compressed by insertion in a board aperture to form a gas tight interconnection. In all the various socket approaches, a common problem has to do with the tolerance of board apertures, not only in diameter, but in true position relative to the arrays of other apertures. This manifests itself in variations from hole to hole and therefore from socket to socket which cause a number of problems, including difficulty of component insertion and extraction, stubbing of lead ends against misaligned sockets, overstressing socket springs, insufficient contact normal forces due to misalignment of sockets and component leads and the like.
Making things perfectly, to tight tolerances is one answer, a very expensive answer. The present invention has as an object the provision of a contact spring socket concept which is inexpensive and yet at the same time, highly adaptable for both board insertion and component lead insertion. The invention has as a further object the provision of a highly compliant socket spring which, because of its geometry, produces board and post stresses to assure consistent insertion and extraction force. The invention socket features anti-overstress and anti-stubbing details and readily facilitates machine assembly of the socket and of sockets into boards.